Saturday, April 25, 2015

Just
Asking:
What did QE do if it didn't increase production and employment (and
it didn't)? It increased the effective money supply (money is no
longer the printed stuff, but computer blips) and that increase went
into driving up asset prices, both equities and commodities, and
driving bond prices down (which theoretically was going to cause an
investment boom, but didn't). Now if we stop QE, push up interest
rates and get the Fed out of the bad loan repository business, won't
that – absent a “recovery”, which is really absent – cause
even less production, less employment, a decrease in the money supply
and thus higher interest rates and a dive
in the prices of stocks and commodities along with a nasty bump
in interest rates and – oh, yeah – another economic collapse? Silence
Friction: China is building a series of giant floating battle stations in
the South China Sea, to accompany its new international bank.

Classification: The US drone program, which has killed a few thousand innocents
at various weddings and funerals and other social events, is in a lot
of trouble because it killed a single American civilian. Fact is, at
best the US simply thinks – thinks! - that there may be a bad guy
or two among the casualties. The rest are collateral damage, much
like what has happened to our reputation.

Big
Boned:
Repeated studies have shown that excess quantities of sugar and
carbohydrates are the prime culprits in the global obesity epidemic –
not physical inactivity and not sedentary lifestyles. Cheap carbs
and high fructose corn syrup are the culprits, and the food
manufacturers and purveyors know this and, like the tobacco companies
before them, put profits above the health of their customers. First
Do No Harm:
The World Bank, in spreading prosperity among the world's bankers,
dictators, tyrants and corporate giants, has displaced 3.4 million
people in the last decade, nearly all of them poor and
disenfranchised.Bargain:
In
the first quarter of this year, US airlines have saved $3.4 billion
on jet fuel and have passed 66 cents in savings on to the typical
passenger. Coordination:
Government scientists have confirmed that much of the surge in
earthquake activity across the US has been caused by fracking –
specifically by the disposal of the fracking waste water. Even
Oklahoma has swallowed
the bitter pill and acknowledged the obvious.
But the same day they did, the state passed a law prohibiting cities
and counties from doing anything to regulate the fracking industry. Noted: 61% of Americans support allowing gays to marry, just not in
their churches nor to their daughters. Easy
Crumb, Easy Go:
In the petty cash department, the Pentagon can’t account for $1
billion in cash given to various military commanders as part of the
Afghan victory. That's a very minor part of the cash distributed to
Afghan leaders – Karzai and Klan – and hardly noticeable
in the $1.6
trillion so far and $6 trillion overall that this Great
Adventure will eventualy
drain from the US taxpayer.

The
Crime of Being Young:
Sometime in the last 30 years or so, being a normal child has become
a disorder requiring pharmaceuticals and restraints. How did this
happen? How did childhood become a crime?

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Silence Friction: Mussolini was right, Fascism did defeat Communism and Democracy. It just took the extended contact of WWII to insure the virus got a good grip on the already compromised immune systems. Mao's last gambits not only failed to prevent the infection of China, but insured the sturdiest, most virulent form of Facist gangster-ism took root.

Dick was closer to the truth in "Man in the High Castle" than he could have thought. Two victors of WWII are now at each other's throats in a battle of wills, via culture, black ops, dirty money for the ultimate control of neo-colonialism.

I agree, not that it means anything. (I almost said you were correct but I can't authoritively say so, thus it remains my opinion.) The 'labels' of the great war have become meaningless, the 'war', such as it is now, is between the peasants and our self-appointed 'nobility' (although there isn't a nickle's worth of difference between today's 'Master of the Universe' and the Buccaneers of old. The robber Barons of old weren't properly punished and we are paying for it dearly today as their grandkids tear up that proverbial oyster their grandparents handed to them.

Yes but the 'right people' have plenty of cheap money thanks to the Fed's QE. The better to buy up your productive assets on the cheap my dears.

"Now if we stop QE, push up interest rates and get the Fed out of the bad loan repository business, won't that – absent a “recovery”, which is really absent – cause even less production, less employment, a decrease in the money supply and thus higher interest rates and a dive in the prices of stocks and commodities along with a nasty bump in interest rates and – oh, yeah – another economic collapse? "

More precisely, a white middle class one. And had it been female, even worse.

Drone attacks have killed quite a few USA citizens already, but they were brown skinned underclass ones, so either "enemy combatants" or at least irrelevant to the concerns of middle class voters.

Years ago I was suitably impressed by a point made in another blog that in the USA in particular the rights and protections of the law that someone enjoys in practice depend on their popularity, and to start with on the popularity of the group they belong to.

BTW as to "controlling mothers" the original article is snidely euphemistic in writing:

«Our society wants children to be restrained, orderly, and eager to please adults.»«as a society we have decided (or at least acquiesced) to drug these annoying traits out of boys»«parents seek medication for their kids primarily to drive them to raise their grades»

The language used here is gender neutral, but "society" and "parents" here are by and large politically correct euphemisms for "mothers" (mostly middle class).

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.